


Unnecessary Bureaucracy

by BerryBagel



Series: BerryBagel Rarepair Week 2019 [5]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, M/M, POV Outsider, Robb Stark is King in the North, argument based sexual tension, renly is king in the south, unexplained past loras/renly breakup
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-11-06 21:41:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17947613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BerryBagel/pseuds/BerryBagel
Summary: Renly is King in the South, Robb is King in the North.  Watching their meetings, Brienne has to wonder how Westeros has stayed at peace for so long.Day five prompt: day/night





	Unnecessary Bureaucracy

Brienne holds Catelyn Stark in the highest possible regard.  Lady Stark has unflinching morals and a backbone of steel. All the stories and songs have told Brienne that King Robb Stark takes after his mother in all possible ways.  He’s a man of his word, brave and true.

 

The stories and songs have neglected to mention how unreasonably  _ difficult _ Robb Stark is.  He comes south twice a year to discuss policy and taxation, but this is the first meeting Brienne has has been tasked with attending.  Usually Ser Robar would be on duty for Renly’s foreign policy meetings, but Ser Robar has spent the last week with a rather nasty case of food poisoning.

 

Renly is dressed in his absolute best finery for the meeting.  He’s always impeccably groomed, but today he’s really gone for the full measure.  The king is wearing a bright blue doublet that is almost certainly new. It brings out his eyes.  Brienne thinks he might even have oiled his hair back.

 

It’s an unusual choice of fashion, given the marked  _ disinterest _ the King in the North is displaying.  Brienne is never one to criticize appearances, and even she has to acknowledge that Robb Stark looks completely disheveled.  He’s unshaven, caked with dirt. He’s wearing a cloak that might be fox fur, but is a worn-ragged brown color. Upon arrival, he assured the Rainbow guard that his journey to King’s Landing was perfectly pleasant, so to the best of Brienne’s knowledge, his choice of attire is merely intended to mock the well-dressed lords of the capital.

 

Renly is trying to appeal his case on a minor border dispute.  Some northern lord has over-staked his claim, and now there’s a debate as to where the line between Renly’s and Robb’s jurisdiction truly lays.  Robb must know that he’s in the wrong, here. For all the griping Brienne has had to hear about  _ Renly’s _ ego, Robb has very effectively made a five-minute problem into a two-hour argument.

 

“Lord Reed would never take southern land.” Robb says, again.

 

“That was never in debate.  We already know he did.” Renly says, again.

 

They both look angry enough to climb across the table and fight hand-to-hand.  Brienne supposes that’s why both Kings have brought representatives from their respective guards.  Dacey Mormont is sitting across the table from her. Dacey seems to see no need to intervene on her King’s behalf.

 

If anything, Dacey looks bored.  There’s a bowl of oranges on the table in front of her.  Dacey has peeled an orange, and is sectioning it into little wedges, pulling all the pulpy strings off of each individual segment.

 

Renly unrolls a map of Westeros, and carefully outlines the offending area.  Robb shakes his head with frustration, moves Renly’s hand aside, and circles a completely different area.  Renly, hand still covered by Robb’s, launches into an impassioned speech about land ownership. Even if Brienne were particularly paying attention to this debate, she’s not sure the proceedings would make much sense.

 

Are all the meetings between Renly and Robb like this, Brienne has to wonder.  If so, how has Westeros possibly stayed at peace for this long? The last time she saw Renly this mad, it had been after an evening of heavy drinking when Ser Emmon brought up Ser Loras.

 

Except, Brienne has to admit, this seems like a different type of anger.  She may no longer harbor romantic feelings towards her King, but she’s not too proud to admit that she’s spent enough time observing his moods to recognize them well.  Renly doesn’t seem offended by Robb, the way he’d been when reminded of Loras’s sudden departure to the wall. He looks… aggravated. He seems unsure of how, exactly, to handle the King in the North, and that unsettles him.

 

* * *

The meeting carries into the late evening, but at long last something is decided.  Lord Reed might get the land, or maybe it’s decided that he was never actually on any disputed land to begin with.  Brienne hasn’t been so far North in years. Renly and Robb aren’t going to go to war over it, and that’s the important thing, really.

 

Dacey invites her to practice grappling after dinner.  Brienne is happy enough to go along. However difficult Robb may be, Dacey is an accomplished warrior.  But as Dacey swings well-balanced punches in her direction, Brienne can’t help but wonder if Lady Mormont shouldn’t be serving her duty as Kingsguard.  She asks as much, and Dacey laughs.

 

“Yes, I suppose I  _ could _ be stationed outside of Robb’s quarters.” Dacey says.  ”But Patrek is also on duty tonight. How many guards does Robb  _ really _ need guarding an empty room?”

 

Brienne almost asks what Dacey is trying to imply.  Then she considers Robb and Renly’s debate, stretched to fill hours.  The needling comments that could only be born of close familiarity. The two Kings, themselves, as different as day and night.

 

Brienne is often still laughably naive, but she isn’t stupid.  She’s happy enough to see the realm at peace. If Robb is wearing Renly’s robe at breakfast the next morning, that’s well and truly no one’s business but his own.


End file.
